Saturday, March 3, 2007

Day 260: Legacy Stitchery

In the last few weeks, there has been some discussion in emails sent by extended family members about our maternal grandmother. She died before most of us were born, and we were tapping our collective memory to share how much we knew about her.

In doing my personal research and writing my memories of what my mother had told me, I recalled the needlework legacy I inherited. My grandmother and her mother were dressmakers by trade. Grandma Bertie also loved embroidery and crochet -- especially thread crochet. I feel blessed to have this love of needlework in my genes.

Over the next few days, I'll post some images of some of the items my grandmother created and were gifted to me. This first image is the corner of a linen napkin with embroidery. It is edged in thread crochet lace.

Part of the history of this piece is that it went through a house fire in 1987 when I was separating from my first husband. It was packed away with his belongings. Years after his death, my first husband's sister returned several of these family heirlooms to my daughters. Most of those linens are quite damaged now, from being in the fire, being in storage, getting moldy, getting bleached. But this corner of this napkin looks pretty good. Now it is preserved in a photograph.